Tears of Lys Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Hell. Yes. From what little I've read from people who have read it, it's supposed to be some kind of spoof or something. But I don't need to subject myself to that shit to be amused. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanF Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I found the graphic sexual violence in American Psycho unpleasant and tedious, (like the books of the Marquis de Sade) rather than frightening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 From what JetboyGirl posted, it seems like over-the-top splatterpunk to me. I may give it a try though, been hankering for a good scare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoth Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Really, the only thing I've read that seriously frightened me was very long ago. I read "Helter Skelter" about the Manson Family/Tate-Labianca murders. One passage described how the family members were ordered "practice" for the murders by entering homes surreptitiously and "creepy crawl" around and then leave. For days afterward, when coming home late, I was sure I'd encounter someone creeping around my darkened home. Freaked me the fuck out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grack21 Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I don't find American Psycho disturbing so much as the people who like it for the ...wrong reasons. See above story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 The faceless soapies (morality cops) in Blade of Tyshalle.There's a scene in there where you just get how powerless you are against these authority figures. It felt very real, like something that could happen to you if you were in the wrong place and time with the wrong cops, and was all the more disturbing for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LugaJetboyGirl Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 From what JetboyGirl posted, it seems like over-the-top splatterpunk to me. I may give it a try though, been hankering for a good scare.Yeah, if you feel like some good old fashion sexual violence against women to while away the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 Yeah, if you feel like some good old fashion sexual violence against women to while away the time.So it's basically a long track of misogyny with splatterpunk, or is it well written? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 So it's basically a long track of misogyny with splatterpunk, or is it well written?It's actually a satire on 1980s yuppiedom. You get the narrator going into endless gory detail about his luxury fashion accessories. The descriptions of his rape/murder/other stuff are quite matter-of-fact, coming across as disgusting, rather than overtly scary: essentially it's taking the dog-eat-dog world of the yuppie and pushing it to a sociopathic extreme.At 400 or so pages though, it's glaringly overlong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Buck Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Though I agree that American Psycho kinda wears out its welcome a bit by the end, I still think it's a very good book, and not because I'm "into violence against women". As others have said, it's a satire, and also a commentary about materialism. And to be honest, it's actually kinda funny at parts (not the insane murders obviously), just with the main character's absurd inner monologues when describing other people and their clothing, his envy of business cards, etc. But yes, if you think extreme violence might bother you, don't read it, because it is extreme, to the point of becoming almost absurd towards the end, though I'm quite sure that's the intended reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukelavee Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 I actually really enjoyed American Psycho, because it actually wasn't about the graphic violence.Plus, some of the writing is amazing - The passages where the narrator critiques music in great detail are so well done.The fact that the narrator knows he's a freak, and that his family has a history of twisted craziness, and it doesn't matter, because they are rich, and that's just who they are.Plus, his actions illustrate how class protects, how disposable others are, or how desperate, and even how empty and interchangeable so many of the movers and shakers are.I got bored with the violence fast, and pretty much scanned most of it, just to keep track of teh plot,; I actually didn't read it until about 6 years ago, mostly because I assumed the killings were the biggest part. I was wrong.It, oddly, seemed really similar in some ways to "Fortress of Solitude", which, while not scarey or blatantly disturbing, is a great book.King's short stories manage to freak me out fairly often.The one with OCD/Lovecraft (although he says "The Great God Pan"), is a nasty little number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grack21 Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Yeah it a satire. But some people don't seem to know/accept that. Like i said its those people who scare me, not the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 The one with OCD/Lovecraft (although he says "The Great God Pan"), is a nasty little number.Speaking of The Great God Pan, poor old Arthur Machen never gets enough attention these days. TGGP and The White People are two gorgeously-written horror stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tears of Lys Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Really, the only thing I've read that seriously frightened me was very long ago. I read "Helter Skelter" about the Manson Family/Tate-Labianca murders. One passage described how the family members were ordered "practice" for the murders by entering homes surreptitiously and "creepy crawl" around and then leave. For days afterward, when coming home late, I was sure I'd encounter someone creeping around my darkened home. Freaked me the fuck out...When I lived in California during the '80s, there was a serial killer dubbed "The Night Stalker", Richard Ramirez. His crimes were particularly grisly, like the Manson family's. He mostly concentrated on the Los Angeles area, but then struck down in Orange County, CA where we lived. He'd come upon people in the middle of the night when they were asleep. When my husband went out of town, I'd sleep with a butcher knife under my pillow (!) Yeah, not too bright. Anyway, fact has always scared me more than fiction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grack21 Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Sometimes this board disturbs me.True story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 For some reason, about seven years ago, I read Still Life With Crows, by Lincoln and Child, and thought it was scary. I reread it two years ago and now I have no idea why. The scenes in Sandman with the Corinthian however, still kinda creepy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alytha Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Another vote for American Psycho. Definetely not the book to read before boing to meet a guy you met online...Another one is Horns by Joe Hill. That book freaked me out on so many levels...Sometimes the scariest monsters are just normal unenhanced humans, not the creepy-crawlies that go bump in the night.Also, anything with eyes and the hurting or destruction thereof. (thank you, ex-bf, for dragging me into Un Chien Andalou, against my will.)Got some bad frights out of Stephen King stuff, especially those novels I read when I might have been a bit too young for them. Tommyknockers for example.Concerning The Great God Pan, I was seriously underwhelmed. Did something scary just happen? Sorry, I didn't notice...I had a period in my late childhood when I totally freaked out about chupacabras, despite the fact that I'm far away from America most of the time, and that they very very probably don't exist. (which, on a conscious level, I did realise at the time. Didn't help though)I also can't really deal with so-called real-life UFO -related experiences, even though on a conscious level, while I do believe that we are not alone in space, I very strongly doubt that they would cross the universe to poke probes into people, and I'd actually be very excited if we made contact during my lifetime. Still can't sleep after watching one of those "documentaries" or written reports. The human subconscious is a wonderful thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 For some reason, about seven years ago, I read Still Life With Crows, by Lincoln and Child, and thought it was scary. I reread it two years ago and now I have no idea why.Stretching this to movies (meh, think screenwriting) when I first saw Event Horizon I found it hard to sleep for three days.I rewatched it and found it boring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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